Immortal: Lord of Health - Chapter 5

“I just need to raise my level,” Joo-ho planned ahead. It was not possible to immediately change jobs with such a low level. As with the PC version, a player had to be at level 10 to get a job.

“Where should I farm?” Kang Joo-ho, who just came out of the security headquarters, quickly looked around.

His current level is 6. His starting equipment wasn’t good and his stats weren’t high yet. The number of monsters that can be hunted in the current situation was very limited. In addition, the kingdom of Paraville had very few hunting grounds.

“I think I should go to this quadrant.” The monsters that one can catch on the hunting ground were limited, so he was able to make a decision right away. Kang Joo-ho began to move towards the west gate.

The blacksmith… Taking steps, Kang Joo-ho looked at the mini-map to find the former blacksmith NPC.

It would be nice if I could check the whole city, he thought. But the minimap could only see a radius of 1 km. In order to check the whole map, a separate map skill or item was required. It would be okay to see the whole map as a convenience, but it was a little disappointing.

[You arrived at the Production Street.]

Soon after, Kang Joo-ho was able to find a former blacksmith NPC. The one he found was located in the middle of the Production Street west of the job square.

It was then.

“Brother!” A familiar voice came in Joo-ho’s ears. He stopped and looked at where the voice came from.

“Seok-joo!” Joo-ho shouted in return. As he expected, the source of the voice was Kim Seok-joo, the deacon.

Kim Seok-joo quickly approached Kang Joo-ho. “Brother, I thought we decided to meet at the 3rd square! And you weren’t planning on coming in the first place?”

“Oh.” Kang Joo-ho had no choice but to blush at the words of Kim Seok-joo.

“Like we said, if we couldn’t meet for the first time, we decided to meet at the 3rd square in an hour,” Seok-joo reiterated.

However, Kang Joo-ho had no intention of going to the 3rd square after an hour. He thought that it would be all right if they met, but it’s better if they didn’t, because it was a waste of time and movement.

“I was going to go there later. Were you also going to go there, Kim Seok-joo?” Joo-ho asked back.

“In a minute…” Seok-joo scratched his head.

Then, with a sudden thought, Kang Joo-ho asked with a slight frown at his forehead. “So why are you here?”

This time, Kim Seok-joo flinched. “Haha, brother! Have you finished the tutorial?” He quickly switched topics.

Kang Joo-ho responded with a smug smile to Kim Seok-joo’s reaction. “Yes, I’ve just finished it. How about you?”

“Me too! Add me as a friend first!”

[Kim Seok-joo has been added as a friend.]

After becoming friends, Kang Joo-ho asked Kim Seok-joo, “What level are you now?”

“6! What about your brother?”

“Me too.”

“It looks like it.”

Kang Joo-ho and Kim Seok-ju took a walk while talking.

“Are you going to catch a stone fox?” asked Kim Seok-joo.

“Uh, if there is no rabbit competition, I’ll grab a rabbit.” Kang Joo-ho replied as he nodded.

Stone fox was a monster that lived in the ‘Stone Fox Forest’. The forest comes a little further west from the Western gate. It was a monster at the level above the rabbit.

Of course, the first step was the starting city, Billeme.

In other countries, there were wild dogs next to rabbits. And next to the wild dogs was the foxes. There were no wild dogs in the kingdom of Paraville. In addition, the foxes of the Paraville Kingdom are not ordinary foxes. They weren’t called stone foxes for no reason.

In the bestiary, the stats of some monsters were revealed. And there was also the stone fox’s stats. Compared to rabbits, its life was three times higher, and defense and attack power were twice as high. The problem was that it had a high ability, but had the characteristics of a hard skin, which reduced the damage received by 20%.

It was rude to compare rabbits and regular foxes to stone foxes, because the stone fox has much more experience than the rabbit. And if there was no competition, catching rabbits would be a faster way to reach level 10.

“So you plan to catch a stone fox?” Kim Seok-joo asked with a smile.

“Yeah,” Joo-ho answered. “Did you go west?” he also asked, for he wanted to know if there were many players in that part of the city.

“Yeah,” Kim Seok-joo nodded. “That place was crowded.”

Unlike Kang Joo-ho, who went to the north gate, Kim Seok-joo went to the west gate. And he knew how many users there were in that part of the city.

“Let’s go party hunting!” Seok-joo suddenly suggested, accompanied with a fluttering look.

“Sure, let me invite you.” Kang Joo-ho created a party and sent an invitation to Kim Seok-joo. “By the way, how did you distribute the stats?”

Kang Joo-ho was going to become a blacksmith. So when he leveled up, he distributed the bonus stats he received to his strength and stamina. However, Kim Seok-joo was going to change his job as an enchanter. And the main stats of the enchanter was wisdom. So it seemed that his bonus stats were not invested in strength or agility.

In other words, it is not very helpful in catching stone foxes.

“Hehe, I invested 5 in my stamina and left 20,” Seok-joo answered. It was as expected by Kang Joo-ho. Kim Seok-joo did not invest in strength or agility at all.

That said, Kang Joo-ho did not intend to abandon Kim Seok-joo. Even if he didn’t invest his stats, it didn’t mean that he wasn’t helpful anymore. There is a big difference between one-on-one and two-on-one in the way they fight. If a single player has to use 10% power alone when catching a stone fox, it doesn’t even reach half of two players combined.

“After I change my job, I will definitely support you!” Kim Seok-joo shouted with a wide smile. “But will you go to the training center first?”

“Well, I’m thinking,” Kang Joo-ho replied.

Training school. It was a place where a player could raise their main stats of their main job through training, such as hitting scarecrows and avoiding attacks.

Of course, there was a limit to the stats that could be raised through training. For beginner training camps, the limit of stats you can raise is 10. For intermediate training centers, 50. For advanced training centers, 100. Lastly, in the case of a top-notch training center, it was possible to increase stats up to 200. It was impossible to post more than that.

“Because I have to raise my stats to at least 50,” Joo-ho added

But that’s not all. Each training center had a level limit. Beginners can enter from 10 to 50 levels. In addition, it was possible to enter from 51 to 200 for intermediate, from 201 to 500 for advanced, and from 501 to 1000 for the best.

For example, if a player reaches level 51 without getting all 10 stats from the beginner training camp, they wouldn’t be able to obtain it anymore, even from other training camps.

“What do you think?” Kang Joo-ho asked Kim Seok-joo. He wondered what kind of thoughts and plans Kim Seok-joo had for the later game.

At the question of Kang Joo-ho, Seok-joo thought for a moment and then opened his mouth. “I think it would be okay to just skip it over.”

The stat you could get at the beginner training center was 10. It was more beneficial to devote that time to growth than to invest time in a training camp just to get 10 stats.

“Because it’s just stats. You can take it later,” Seok-joo added.

And a player can get stats not only at the training center. They could also get stats from certain actions, such as reading old books and running.

“Yes, then let’s skip beginners.” Kang Joo-ho decided after hearing Kim Seok-joo’s answer. He became relaxed because the burden of how to level up has gone.

Soon after, Kang Joo-ho and Kim Seok-ju were able to reach the west gate.

“No, stop stealing my rabbit!”

“Hey! That rabbit is mine!”

“Ana, the rabbit is not here!”

“Shall we go the other way?”

“I only need 12 more, so let’s do it here. I think there are many other places as well.”

There were so many users in the west gate, as Kim Seok-joo said. When one rabbit was regenerated, three nuts ran into it.

“It was as if it’s a big deal,” Seok-joo exclaimed, with his eyes wide open.

“Because it is. Even if I was a little late, I wanted to participate in the competition at first. Good thing I thought about the stone foxes.”

Kang Joo-ho and Kim Seok-ju took a walk while talking. They walked straight past the other players, and were able to reach their destination in no time.

[You have entered the Stone Fox Forest.]

After arriving in the forest, Kim Seok-joo said with a surprised expression.“There are users who came earlier than us?”

Joo-ho came right after the tutorial. He thought they would have arrived earlier than anyone, but there were already several users in the forest.

At the end of Kim Seok-joo, Kang Joo-ho, who was watching the players just stand there for a while, opened his mouth. “I think they just came to see it?”

The players did not attack the stone fox. They just looked at it and watched it as if they were in a zoo.

“I think so,” Kim Seok-joo nodded.

Soon after, Kang Joo-ho and Kim Seok-joo drew attention from users.

We shouldn’t keep standing around like this, Joo-ho thought.

“Let’s catch that.” Kang Joo-ho told Kim Seok-joo. He took the lead toward the stone fox in front.

There was another stone fox nearby, but it didn’t matter. Even if there were other stone foxes, there was no need to worry.

Soon after arriving in front of the stone fox, Kang Joo-ho said to Kim Seok-ju.“Cover me if it tries to attack or do anything.”

“Yeah! I will go in after it notices us!” Kim Seok-joo replied

Kang Joo-ho swung his iron sword at the stone fox.

Clang!

Shing!

The iron sword hit the fox. It let out a short scream, stepped back, and stared at Kang Joo-ho. Then it started running towards him. The stone fox jumped and swung its front paws.

Scratch!

Kang Joo-ho, who was already preparing for an attack, quickly fell back and swung his iron sword and struck the fox’s forefoot.

Splat!

The stone fox once again screamed briefly and stepped back.

My vision is narrower than I thought, it will be hard to avoid its attacks, Kang Joo-ho thought while facing a stone fox staring at him.

On the PC version of Earth, the player was able to grasp the situation of the battlefield at a glance through the monitor. However, the VR version had a limited view. It was incomparable to the PC version. An attack could be avoided if the player could watch the movement of the stone fox, but it seemed that it could not be easily avoided in the VR version.

The stone fox, who was watching Kang Joo-ho, jumped again. As before, Kang Joo-ho fell back and wielded an iron sword.

Shing!

Once again, the iron sword and the stone fox’s paws met, and the stone fox screamed and stepped back and stared at Kang Joo-ho. And just then…

“I’ll go in now!” Kim Seok-joo participated in the battle.

Two times at the front paws, and one at its back, a total of three attacks were successful. They could feel that they were starting to win.

“I’ll take the left!” Kim Seok-joo moved to the left of the stone fox.

The stone fox glanced at Kim Seok-joo, then it stared at Kang Joo-ho and jumped again. Unlike before, Kang Joo-ho didn’t have the time to fall back. Fortunately, he wasn’t alone this time.

Splat!

Kim Seok-joo, who was waiting for the stone fox to jump, swung an iron sword and cut the stone fox’s side.

Shing!

The stone fox, who only focused and attacked at Kang Joo-ho, could not avoid Kim Seok-joo’s attack and began to fall.

Splat!

And at that moment, Kang Joo-ho’s iron sword went into the back of the stone fox.